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Monument to all Your Sins
"Remember, little brother, don't make promises you cannot keep." Sadow's young eyes widened as he tilted his head curiously "What do you mean, Akihiro?" His older brother smiled back at him and explained "If you make a promise to someone, you are supposed to keep it, no matter what." Sadow asked "Why?" Akihiro burst out into laughter, greatly annoying his younger brother "Stop laughing! It was a serious question!" Akihiro wiped away a tear and answered "It's just the way it is, brother. Promises are made to be held dear. It's a form of trust. And, in some cases, a form of punishment." Sadow asked again, whiningly "Punishment? You're not making any sense, brother!" Akihiro smiled and looked out at the great blue sky before them. He lay next to his brother in front of a healthy tree on a grassy hill. What a beautiful day. "You'll understand one day, dear brother. I'm sure, one day, you'll understand..." Slow Ride Into Town Sadow trudged his way into the small town. Looking around, he noticed people lazily enjoying their lives, noticing him as a black zit on the beautiful face of their lifestyle. Scowling at him, they were returned with a cold glare. He made his way over to a local tavern where a commosion had been made. A man sitting at the bar, his white hair obscuring his eyes, calmly asked for another drink. What he failed to grasp was everyone was ticked off at his actions, knocking out the dealer at a nearby card table. The bartender repeatedly tried to force the man to leave, and every time would get the same answer. "One more beer please". Sadow entered and sat next to the white-haired indivual, noting how similar he looked to his kin. "Cheshire Brandy, please." The bartender poured him a glass of a honey-coloured liquid while gazing annoyedly at the other white-haired individual. "You got a problem kid? I know I look good and all but still." The man glanced over at Sadow, wondering why he was under such scrutiny. "Not my fault the dealer didn't check the flop before calling by bluff. He legally cheated me out of 1000 Gil." Sadow muttered "Piss off." And took another sip of his drink. "Would you mind saying that again? Just because you act all high and mighty doesn't make you a real big deal." the man was getting annoyed with Sadow, but still refused to move unless given another beer. "Or, are you a coward?" he added with a sly grin. Sadow stirred slightly by the accusation. "A coward, you say...? I dare you to say that again." Sadow's hand gripped the handle of his blade. "I'll do you one better. How about i spell it for ya? C-O-W-A-R-D. Tell ya what, head to this address and ask for Shade. we'll settle this there." The man left, leaving a note on the table, and payement for his beer, much to the relief of the bartender. "I'd stay the Hell away from him. That man is crazy, but he does have a good aim. But I won't hold you back if you want to fight him. Sadow didn't want to be distracted off course, but the idea of him being accused of cowardice is one hefty insult. He would take the challenge. Duel Sadow made it to the designated adress and looked around for Shade. "Hello again. I do hope the bartender told you about my good aim. But of course, once a man's pride is wounded, the only restitution is a duel based soley on regaining that pride." The man said, walking right behind Sadow. "As you know my name, I need not introduce myself. However, I'll need your name. Just so we are aquanted before our match." Sadow's eyelids faltered gently "...My name." Sadow answered sternly "Yatsumaru Sadow." "Well then Sadow.To prove I'm not a heartless man, do you have anyone who can carry on you family name? I won't kill the sole carrier of a surname. It just doesn't sit right with me." Shade said, reaching for his revolver, Lucy. Sadow smirked darkly and answered in a cold hush "Well, there is one person..." "Very well. Name your terms. Do we just fight to the death, or until one of us passes out? And any restrictions on spells or whatnot. Stuff like that." Shade cocked his revolver, and leveled it at Sadow's head. Sadow smirked "Nah. Let this be a good old-fashioned brawl." At that, Sadow drew his sword while staring at Shade. "Very well. May the better man win." With that, Shade opened fire, shooting only once to test Sadow's reflexes. Sadow guarded the impact of the bullet and rushed toward Shade with his sword held firmly forward. Shade ran in, and thankful that Lucy was made from some really hard metal, prepaired to use the gun as a melee weapon. His eyes betrayed no emotions, but he was enjoying himself. i hope this guy lasts for a while. Most other people would be dead before too long. Sadow slammed his blade against his opponent's gun, and pushed forward to knock him to the ground. Shade landed flat on his back. As he pushed himself back up, he mumbled something about being the most unlucky gambler in the whole world. "Anyway, If that's the worst you've got, I'll win this easy." Sadow ignored his taunting and charged forth against, digging his sword into the ground and making it rise to cut Shade in an upward motion. Shade backed up just enough to avoid serious harm, but a few of his jacket straps were cut in the process. "Good swing. But..." Shade's sentence was cut short as a thin trail of blood dropped from his forehead and down his nose. "On second thought, that was a VERY good swing." Sadow's facial expression didn't change and he followed it up with a downward chop. The sword glanced on Shade's shoulder armor, sending sparks flying, and a grating sound echoed throughout the area. He aimed his gun once again, and was about to fire, but instead, jabbed the barrel foreword. "Any last words, Sadow?" Sadow smirked "Zap." At that, he poised his index finger to Shade's torso and sent out a streak of red electricity, burning a hole through him. "Normal mages don't use red energy, so what are you?" Shade asked, using a Phoenix Down to keep from dying. "You also owe me a new shirt." He took aim and fired three shots, although he didn't know his friend had switched the bullets with rubber training rounds. Sadow took the brunt of all three shots but was only bruised by them. He smirked "I am the Boogeyman." At that, he charged toward Shade once again. "Ok. That's about the most awkward thing you could have ever said. I only got two shots left. Here, enjoy them." Shade pulled the trigger once more. "And then there was one." Sadow guarded both the rubber bullets and slammed the handle of his blade onto Shade's head. "Ouch, you friggin prat." Before he could even counter the attack, Shade staggered for a sec, and fell to the ground as though he were dead. Only faint noises betrayed his life was still around. The few people in the area started cheering, surprised that this stranger outfought the best gunman in town, and without more than a few bruses no less. Sadow looked down at him coldly and stated "I am no coward." At that, he sheathed his sword and turned to leave. Shade forced himself to wake up, and gazed at his foe. "Before you leave, I just want to say, I'm sorry for calling you a coward. I was a fool who was just ticked off. And to make it up to you, I want you to know, if you need anything, don't hesitate to find me." He stood up, dusted off his jacket, turned away, rubbing his head. That really friggin hurts. Sadow scoffed and continued walking "Help from an insect like him...? To hell with that." Terrifying Trio Marching toward the small town was a group of three. One had large, black horns on his head and orange hair. The shortest one at the center had goat horns that curved around his cheeks as well as similar orange hair and slitted, yellow eyes with a black jumpsuit and chin-high collar. The last of them had long, flowing black hair, pointed ears, and three sets of wings. Each strided toward the main entrance and began looking around. The bartender walked out of the tavern to see if he could be of assistance. "Excuse me, sirs, but are you looking for anything? If I may provide any information, I'd be happy to." Although he was slightly scared of the trio, he didn't really care. They were strangers in a foreign town, and it was his duty to help people who need it. The one with long black hair smiled at him warmly, though sarcasm and chilling threat gave way in his tone "We are looking for someone. A man of rather tall height with white hair that flows down to his lower back and sea-blue eyes. He should be wearing black. Have you seen or heard of such a description?" "Yeah. He royally pissed off the town sharpshooter, and from the cheering that I heard, he won. He went towards the arena complex a few blocks that way." the bartender pointed south. "Will that be all, sirs?" The black-haired man smirked "Indeed it will." At that, the short one at the center appeared behind him and impaled him through the chest with his bare hand. Disturbance on the Field Sadow walked up to the large arena, the entertainment colliseum for nearby villages. Unimpressed, Sadow proceeded up to the front gate, where he was blocked by a pair of armed guards "Halt! Where's your pass?" Sadow grimaced then, with swift movements, knocked them out of his way with two hard kicks. Their heavy armour prevented them from getting back up, thus Sadow proceeded into the arena. Shade made his way back to the bar, intent on buying a drink. However when he arrived he found the bartender dead as a door nail. "Who the hell could spear through the sturnum so easy? A wound like that would have killed the poor guy in seconds." Shade mused to himself, before taking off to his home about a yard away. Lucy isn't gonna stop anything that strong, so I guess I may need to use 'It'. ''He entered his house without much sound, and dug through his gun stash before pulling out pistol ammo, and what could best be described as a rifle. Shade dashed out the door again and off to the arena, and prayed that no one was hurt. Sadow entered the arena to find many opponent's locked in battle, most of them untalented farmboys wanting to make a name for themselves. Sadow unsheathed his blade and marched toward them, the tip digging into the ground as he walked. One of them noticed him, and the rest followed suit, raising brows questioningly. They mumbled to each other "Who's that guy...? Where'd he come from? How'd he get in here...?" With swift strokes, Sadow disarmed each of them and turned to the rich spectator's "I shall claim the prize money for this battle." A fat, bearded man gave a toast to him and sipped his wine. "Very well, young warrior! But perhaps, since this has ended so quickly, you would be interested in facing... ''different opponents?" Sadow raised a brow inquisitively. Shade made it to the arena, thankful it was still standing. He ran past the two guards, apologizing that he didn't have a pass. Where the Hell is he? I find it odd that he shows up, and people start dying for no reason. He thought to himself as he saw everyone crowding in the main area. He pushed through the crowd to try and get a better view, amid cries of "Watch it, we all want to see this too, ya' know?" and many variations. Sadow rode atop a large beast, a feline with spikey-tendrils on it's head and a barbed tail. It roared ferociously as Sadow impaled it's head with his sword. He jumped off and readied to attack a large, crab-like beast. The crowd roared in entertainment, and the fat Baron smiled and sipped his wine. Shade wasn't one to enjoy mindless slaughter, but found Sadow's horrific display quite entertaining. I just hope he doesn't get cleaved by the crab thing's pincer things. Sadow blocked one of it's heavy pincers but was sent hurtling into a wall. His back slammed into the stone, knocking the air out of him for a moment. He clammed to the ground as the beast inched closer to him. As it was raising one of it's pincers to snap him in half, he quickly summoned his sword to his hand and impaled the creatures' small mouth, the blade exiting out of the armoured skull. Shade stood there, looking around for anyone suspicious, but the crowd was too dense to see through or over. I'll have to wait 'till the crowd thins out a little before I look for whoever it is I should be looking for. He thought while memories of the bartender swam in his mind. Sadow held the corpse of the large crab down with his foot and pulled out the blade, blood spurting out as he did so with a gurgling noise. The large Baron rose and clapped his hands with the audience "Marvelous! Truly marvelous! We have ourselves a winner, here, folks! Not only have you bested all of our contestants at once, but you have braved the deadly beasts that have scourged our lands for a while before being captured! You truly are a warrior worthy of this arena!" Sadow looked apathetically at him and simply asked "Where is my prize money...?" The Baron smiled and clapped for his scrawny assistant to usher in a chest filled with gil. "Now THAT is what I call money." Shade clambered onto the stage, much to everyone's frustration. "Hey Sad-sack, how many zeros do you think are there? My guess, ten, minimum. But then again, that begs a second question. Is it real?" Sadow looked comically annoyed at him "Hands off, shorty. I didn't see you kill anything to get this." "When your done killing things, I need to talk with you. Unless of course, you don't give a rat's ass about whoever it is following you killing everyone here. After our match, I went to get a beer, but the bartender's dead. Kinda funny, you show up, and people start dying." Shade rambled, emotion taking over. "Ahem, sorry about that." Sadow smirked darkly "Happens alot. How did he die?" "A hand through the sturnum. Not many people are strong enough to do that. Know anyone who could?" Shade asked, slightly nervous. Sadow's eyes widened slightly "A hand... through the sturnum...? The only person I know who prefers that kind of-" Before he could finish, a clawed hand burst from the ground toward his sturnum. He backed away and drew his sword quickly. "This is the guy, I take it? If it is him, I'll help you. Hell, anyone who messes with you messes with me. It's my code of honor I guess." Shade mumbled the last bit, unholstering Lucy. "Don't worry, this time, the bullet's are real."